Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veine in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour…
It’s springtime in England, late in the 14th century. Winter is but a memory and the dry days of March have passed. Gentle west winds are bringing warmth to English soil, and all creation is awakening in splendor. It’s the time of the year, Geoffrey Chaucer tells us,
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
in particular, to Canterbury.
Chaucer himself joins a gathering of twenty-nine pilgrims and their host to make the spiritual journey to the seat of English Christianity. The company Chaucer describes, and who will regale one another with all sorts of tales along their way, is a cross-section of Christendom and a distant mirror of our own times.
The Clerk, or Scholar, is my favorite character among the group of pilgrims. He was a poor student of logic at “Oxenford”, gaunt in appearance but devoted to his studies, as Chaucer reports:
Of studye took he moost cure and moost heede.
He had evidently sought learning in places other than Oxford because the tale he relates was, he explains, told to him by Petrarch in Padua, Italy, perhaps while our Scholar was studying there.
He had been at his studies for some time now—
That unto logik hadde longe ago—
but was yet to secure a “benefice” or an “office”—probably meaning in the Church, as the study of “logic” in those days (14thcentury) could entail philosophy and rhetoric as well as theology.
He cared not for money or material things. He would rather have twenty books at his bedside than luxurious clothing and musical diversions. He spent what little money he had on books and learning, especially logic and philosophy, especially Aristotle. Friends supported him in his studies, and he prayed faithfully for them.
He was a man of few words, but when he spoke, his words were constant in virtue, few and carefully considered, reverent and correct in form, and full of wisdom:
Noght oo word spak he moore than was neede,
And that was seid in forme and reverence,
And short, and quik, and ful of heigh sentence.
Sowninge in moral vertu was his speche…
He was as eager to teach as he was to study and learn, as Chaucer tells us in one of my favorite lines from the Canterbury Tales:
And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche.
The Scholar thus presents many excellent traits to emulate. His diligence in study, self-denial as to possessions, passion for books and learning, virtue of speech, patience in waiting for a call, and amid all that, readiness to teach are admirable traits for those who are entrusted with the ministry of the Word.
The Scholar’s Tale, which we will consider in our next installment, draws on many Biblical allusions to recount a story of loyalty and love.
